1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ahead-protecting airbag apparatus including an airbag which, when fed with inflation gas, is deployable downward from an upper periphery of side windows of a vehicle to protect occupants' heads.
2. Description of Related Art
In the prior art, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-91490 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-33845 are illustrative of head-protecting airbag apparatuses including airbags which are folded and housed in the upper peripheral area of windows of a vehicle inclusive of upper areas of pillars, while being covered by an airbag cover. When fed with inflation gas, each of these airbags pushes and opens the airbag cover and deploy downward from the upper peripheral area of the windows to cover interior sides of the pillars and windows. These airbag apparatuses are provided with a jump stand and/or a guide plate that prevents a deploying airbag from entering into an exterior space of a pillar garnish covering the inner side of the pillar, such that the airbags smoothly deploy toward the interior of vehicle.
The jump stand is disposed above, and at outer side of, the pillar garnish, and includes a slanted guide face, on its top surface. The jump stand serves to guide the airbag to deploy toward the interior of vehicle without contacting an upper end of the pillar garnish but overpassing the upper end of the pillar garnish, by having the airbag slide on its guide face.
The guide plate is coupled to the jump stand and mounted around the folded airbag. Upon airbag deployment, the guide plate also deploys in such a manner as to block up the exterior space of the upper end of the pillar garnish.
However, the jump stand is made of rigid material so they guide the deployment direction of the airbag securely, which can increase the weight of the apparatus by the use of metal such as plate metal. On the other hand, if the jump stand is made of synthetic resin for lightweight solution, the jump stand will require a rib for reinforcement, which will result in a bulkiness of the jump stand.
Especially when the airbag is designed to cover the interior side of the rear pillar, since a rear pillar garnish has a wide width at its upper end in the longitudinal direction, a jump stand disposed at the rear pillar must be designed elongative in accordance with the dimension of the rear pillar garnish. Therefore, above problems of weight increase and bulkiness are enhanced.